A method to his madness
by kirayasha aka kira
Summary: Jakotsu asks his life-partner, Bankotsu, for help with a scene… Modern AU, written for LJ's IYhed comm


Title: A method to his madness  
Author: kira  
Rating: teen  
Characters: Ban/Jak  
Genre, AU/Canon, etc.: Modern AU, fluffy-romance, mild angst  
Words: 990  
Summary: Jakotsu asks his life-partner, Bankotsu, for help with a scene…  
Warnings: none

Author's notes: Jakotsu works as an actress on a nighttime soap. His character's name is Emiko and he often refers to her in the same manner we would refer to someone we know. Hideki is the name of another character on the soap.

888

"Damn it!" Jakotsu swore. He gripped his script tightly in his hands as he glared at it. He was half-tempted to throw it across the living room in frustration.

"What's wrong, Sweetness?" his life-partner, Bankotsu, called out from the dining room, where he sat, listening to demo tapes.

"Nothing, Ban honey!" the cross-dresser replied.

"That doesn't sound like nothing," Bankotsu said as he approached him. Sitting down next to the life-partner, he asked, "You want me to read lines with you?"

"No…" Jakotsu sighed as he peered over the top of his reading glasses at his life partner. "Hideki found out about Emiko's fling with the cabana boy and he's left her."

"You're having trouble with that?"

"Not with the leaving her part; it's how he left her. One of the writers thought it would be fun to have him write her a 'dear John' letter. That's fine and I know she's devastated by it," he paused to rub the headache that threatened to explode behind his eyes, "but it's so stupid!"

Bankotsu grinned. "You'll get it, Sweetness."

"No, I won't. My first instinct is to channel that hurt into anger at the bastard for not having the guts to break up with me, no her face to face! Besides, it's so junior high school!"

"Do I detect a letter in your past?" the younger man teased.

Jakotsu giggled. "No, I didn't date until high school, and besides, I never went out on more than a date or two with any of the girls anyway because my interests lay elsewhere." He playfully sighed in an overdramatic way. "If only the captain of the football team thought I was as cute as I thought he was."

Bankotsu laughed. "So I take it you're going to be laughing your ass off during taping?"

"Yup and I don't think the producers are going to be happy if Emiko is laughing hysterically, instead of crying hysterically."

"So is there anything I can do to help?"

Jakotsu smiled sweetly. "We're getting low on cat food."

"And you want me to go get some?" Bankotsu was thoroughly puzzled by his life-partner's changing the subject.

"No, I think I'll go down to the corner and pick some up…"Taking off his glasses, he leaned towards the younger man, giving him his best sultry look. "And you stay here and write me a letter that'll rip my heart out and shred it into little pieces."

"I don't know, Sweetness, I love you too much to want to leave you."

"I know…" Jakotsu kissed him. "And that's why you're going to help me with this. Please, Ban honey…"

Bankotsu heaved a long suffering sigh.

"Please, Ban honey…" Jakotsu repeated as he smiled impishly. "With red lace lingerie, whipped cream, and a cherry on top…"

"Alright, alright, I'll do it." He grinned wickedly at his life partner. "I think we should throw in a spanking too, as someone is exceptionally naughty today."

"Ban honey, when you talk like that, I'm half-tempted to chuck everything and spend the day in bed with you."

"But you won't because the kids need to eat for one thing and for another you're too much of a professional to start acting like some ditzy starlet. Now go, before I ravish you."

"Ooh… Like I said before, when you talk like that-"

"Get out of here, Sweetness!"

"I'm going! I'm going!" Jakotsu stood up to leave. "Seriously, Ban honey, I really appreciate this."

"I know and I'm glad I could help. When you get back, it'll be on the kitchen table."

"Okay."

While Jakotsu left the living room, Bankotsu got up and headed back into the adjoining dinning room. He sat at the dining room table again, and picking up his pen, he flipped up a few pages of the pad; he had been taking notes on. He stared at the blank page while listening to the sounds of his life-partner leaving their apartment. Taking a deep breath, he began to write. When he was done, he ripped the page out of the pad, folded it and got up to go to the kitchen, stopping to get Jakotsu's glasses on the way.

888

Jakotsu came back fifteen minutes later with the cat food. After leaving his shoes in the genkan, he went straight up into the kitchen. He put all of the cat food away, except for two tins which he opened and put out for their cats.

He slowly walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. Placing a hand on the letter, it was several minutes before he could will himself to open it and read it. Their apartment was eerily quiet, which added to his feelings of dread. As much as he knew deep down that Bankotsu would never leave him, just seeing letter, evoked all the past failed relationships he had ever had. With a deep sense of trepidation he put on his glasses and began to read. Reaching the end, Jakotsu felt his eyes welling up with tears. Bankotsu's letter, as Hideki to Emiko, was short and to the point, but it cut deep, just as he knew it would, as it played upon Jakotsu's worst fear. The cross-dresser, when he read it again, saw both his and Bankotsu's names instead:

"_Dear Jakotsu,_

"_I'm leaving you for another woman._

"_Bankotsu"_

The cross-dresser read it over a few more times, and the last time he did so a ragged sob escaped his lips. He put the letter down and took off his glasses. Closing his eyes, he sat there, crying softly.

Bankotsu came running at the sound. Putting his arms around his life-partner, he said softly, "You know _I _would never leave _you_…"

"I know…" Jakotsu sniffed as he held onto him tightly. "I guess I'm being silly, eh?"

"Yeah…" He pulled back and wiped away the cross-dresser's tears.

"But that's why you love me…"

Bankotsu pulled him close. "Always and forever…"


End file.
